Windows Update fast - Microsoft Update sssslllloooooowwwww

[cubby1223]

Windows XP Pro. First, laptop had gotten some virus/malware. I cleaned it all off and everything. The side-effect now is that Microsoft Update is woefully slow, taking ~5 minutes for *each* step in the process. Like it's 5 minutes to scan for new updates, another 5 minutes to begin the download process, another 5 minutes to initialize the installation process, etc. Windows Update, on the other hand, is speedy and everything runs along in the snap of a finger.

I don't know. Anybody seen this & know what can be attempted?

The laptop is an IBM Lenovo R61, and I cannot use my own cd for a repair install, doesn't have the proper device drivers to see the hard drive. In other words, it will take money and time to get a restore cd from them, and even then there's no guarantee it's one that will allow me do a repair install.

 

[nerp]

Not sure if there's really anything you can do about it. Microsoft Update, while useful for finding Office updates along with Windows updates, has always been dog-slow for me on XP. In Vista, it doesn't seem to make a bit of difference if you opt to "scan for updates for additional Microsoft products" or whatnot. Not sure if you really can do anything about it. Once you're up and running, I recommend just sticking with automatic updates so you really don't have to deal with it directly.

 

[RebateMonger]

You'll also see this "dog-slow" effect if you have a failing hard drive. Double-check your Windows System Event Logs for disk or NTFS errors.

 

[cubby1223]

It's a possibility, perhaps more a configuration was corrupted than a failing drive, I'd think. Nothing is in the event logs, and hasn't affected anything besides Microsoft Update. I just set things back to Windows Update only & returned the laptop. Just crossing my fingers he won't run into any further hassle. I still would have wanted to try a repair install, though. I'll see.